Sunday, January 31, 2010

When In Rome

In When In Rome, Beth is unlucky in love.  On a quick trip to Rome for her little sister's wedding, she steals coins from the local fountain of love.  Back in New York, her suitors aggressively pursue her, including Nick, the best man from her sister's wedding. By stealing the coins, she has taken the coin's owner's wish for love into her own hands and now has too much to handle!  Of the five very unique suitors, Beth finds herself starting to fall for Nick.  She discovers that one of the coins is a poker chip that matches Nick's set.  She resolves to return the coins to the men and rid herself of these men, including the one man that she may actually love more than her job.

This was a better movie than I was expecting it to be.  It was incredibly funny and, judging from the unanimous bursts of laughter, everyone in the theater enjoyed it.  Kristen Bell is a really good comedic actress.  I was worried going into it that it may be more of the disgusting shock-value humor of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but it had none of the same jokes.  I think it is in her facial expressions and sense of timing.  But those same facial expressions made you hurt for her later in the movie.  She did a great job.

The on-screen chemistry between her and Josh Duhamel worked really well.  The only disturbing thing was the serious gap in their heights.  Either she's freakishly short, or he's freakishly tall, because even with her in heels there was more than a foot difference.  

The supporting cast was really good as well:   Angelica Houston, Danny Devito, Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Will Arnett, to name a few.  I didn't particularly care for Dax Shepard's character.  Jon Heder did a fantastic job, as he always did.  Brittany and I had to do a fist-pound when he showed up on screen.  Danny Devito was super cute.

I was kind of annoyed that Angelica Houston's character was another overbearing "dragon lady" type of business woman.  I am beginning to become disgusted with that stereotype.

I really liked the song during the opening credits: "Kickin' With You" by Jason Mraz, who I think is a fantastic musician and lyricist.  The rest of the soundtrack is pretty good.  I've downloaded about half of it already.  "Ave Maria" was one that I skipped.  It is one of the cliche wedding songs that makes my eyes roll every time I hear it in a wedding scene.

Overall, a great girl's night movie, spent with some of my favorite girls. And one I'll probably add to my collection when it goes to DVD.

2 comments:

Amanda said...

It was a fun movie. I'm glad there was no shock humor in it. I didn't mind Dax Shepard's character (I liked him more than Jon Heder's - I've never liked Jon Heder in anything), but all the "suitors" were kind of ridiculous, I think. :D Ave Maria is one of those songs I dont' really like anyway. And I was really confused why there were german dancers at the Italian wedding. In fact, I think the only thing that really bothered me about the movie was the god-awful stereotypes of Italian people. I don't like when people use stereotypes in media. It's one of my pet peeves. I was glad they didn't stay in Rome too long because of that.

btw, my grandmother looks exactly like Angelica Houston, except thinner.

Ann said...

Yeah, the suitors were like a running gag more than anything else. Meant to be a little ridiculous.

Yes! Those dancers were out of place! I remember being a little like, "Where did that come from?!"

I heart Angelica Houston. She's on my favorite actresses list.